A Parliamentary Committee has given support to the concept that the Universal Credit system isn't fit for the purpose when used by the self-employed.

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The Work and Pensions Select Committee has recommended that the Minimum Income Floor should not apply to Universal Credit claimants until the policy has been independently reviewed.

Freelancer group, IPSE presented evidence at a Select Committee hearing on the matter, where it called for the Minimum Income Floor to take account of income volatility – an issue that can affect a significant number of self-employed people.

Simon McVicker, IPSE Director of Policy, welcomed this news. He said: “The Select Committee is absolutely right to flag up its serious concerns about this issue. When you are self-employed, you can have good months and bad months, which leads to a very volatile income. This leads to many problems with the Minimum Income Floor, which can mean people losing access to universal credit.

"To put it frankly, Universal Credit is a nightmare if you work for yourself.

“It would be fundamentally wrong to deny someone access to Universal Credit simply because they are self-employed. The Government needs to urgently look at how it interacts with the self-employed. If they don’t get this right, it could put a lot of people out of business.”